HMCS Rainbow
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HMCS Rainbow C/S VDB was an Apollo-second class protected cruiser serving the RN and RCN.
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[edit] Royal Navy Service
HMS Rainbow was built for Britain's Royal Navy by Palmers at Hebburn-On-Tyne in England. She was launched on the 25th of March, 1891 as HMS Rainbow and entered service in 1893. She would serve in China Station in Hong Kong from 1895 to 1898 and in Malta from 1898 to 1899. The cost of operating the Rainbow was deemed excessive, and between 1900 and 1909 she saw very limited service. Most of her operations at this time were closer to England. During this time, she also saw a severe reduction in Fleet Support, resulting in minor modernization updates. Her crew rotation at this time was basically used as a training cycle. Eventually, she was not used at sea from 1907 - 1909 at all. In early 1909 the Admiralty ordered her decommissioned, and placed on the Inactive List (Ships of the Line that were not in service).
[edit] Royal Canadian Navy Service
HMS Rainbow was presented to Canada in 1910, and was recommissioned HMCS Rainbow. Along with HMCS Niobe, she became one of the two first ships of the Royal Canadian Navy being purchased from the Admiralty. She entered Canadian service on May 4, 1910. Her initial duties included training, ceremonial visits and fishery patrols. Rainbow served Canada's west coast from Esquimalt, British Columbia. In 1916 and early 1917 the Rainbow was used in the transporting of $140,000,000 in Russian Gold Bullion[1] (1917 Canadian Dollars) between Esquimalt, and Vancouver. This money was placed in trust with Canada to protect this money. The RCN found that the cost of operating the Rainbow was using up too much budget of West Coast naval operations. The Rainbow was decommissioned and de-activated in 1917. With the outbreak of war (World War I), the Rainbow re-entered service in July 1917 as a depot ship. She served until 1920, patrolling the west coast in World War I and training the first generation of Canadian naval recruits.
[edit] Post Royal Canadian Navy Service
After being paid off in 1920 she was sold as a freighter in Seattle, Washington and later scrapped.
The ship's name was used again for a Tench-class submarine from the United States (ex-USS Argonaut (SS-475) and serving from 1968 to 1974.
[edit] Specifications
- Launched: March 25, 1891
- Crew: 273 to 300 (Officers and Men)
- Length 314 feet
- Beam 43 feet 6 inches
- Draught 17 feet 6 inches
- Displacement 3,600 tons
- Propulsion: ? resulting in 9,000 shp[2]
- Armour: ?
- Armament: 2 X 6inch Naval gun, 2 X 4.7inch Naval gun, 8 X 6 pounders (Naval gun capable of firing a 6 pound shot), 2 to 4-14inch TT (TorpedoTubes)
[edit] Commanding Officers
- CDR J.D.D. Stewart (RN) 4/8/1910 - 23/6/1911
- CDR W. Horse (RN) 24/6/1911 - 30/4/1917
- CDR H.E. Holme (RCN 1/5/1917 - 8/5/1917
- LCDR J.H. Knight (RCN) 1/7/1917 - 21/8/1917
- CDR J.T. Shenton (RCN) 22/8/1917 - 12/5/1918
- LT Y. Birley (RCN) 13/5/1918 - 14/10/1919
- CAPT E.H. Martin,CMG, (RCN) 15/10/1919 - 1/6/1920
[edit] References
- HMCS Rainbow
- HMCS Rainbow
- Macpherson, Keneth R. and Burgess, John. (1982)(Second Printing)The Ships of Canada's Naval Forces 1910-1981. Collins Publishers. ISBN 0-00-216856-1
